But she doesn’t live in a perfect world. She lives in this one. Despite all of the light and beauty out there, the world has dark places and cruel people in it, too. Grace would have met them even if she had never been taken to Middleton. She might have been spotted by some other creeper in a white van at the mall, or a boy at a party who’d had too much to drink, or any one of a thousand different men looking for a victim. There are many kinds of monsters out there, and Alana knows she can never put herself between Grace and all of them, no matter how fast or strong she is.

At some point, she has to trust her daughter to make her own way.

This isn’t how she wanted it to go, obviously. She really thought that Grace would face the world when she was out of college, with her own apartment and a new car paid for by her parents. That’s what she wanted.

But we don’t always get what we want.

Alana believes in her daughter. She believes she’s strong enough.

Now Grace, like so many other little girls in this world, will have to fight for her life.

She tried to keep Grace safe. She can admit it: she failed. Now they both have to pay for it. It’s not fair and it’s not right. It’s just what is.

But Alana doesn’t have to like it. So in the meantime, she’ll take it out on Wade.

Wade and Alana size each other up. Alana tears off her jacket, revealing the gauntlets on her forearms. Under her pants, she also wears her greaves — the only parts of her armor that still fit her properly and could be hidden under her clothes.

Wade hesitates. He looks at her from deep in the dark wells of his eyes. “Get out of the way,” he says. “And maybe I won’t look for you when I’m done with Carrie.”

She smiles prettily at him. “Oh, Wade. You put hands on my daughter. That makes you mine.”

He laughs. “You think you’re innocent? That it’s not murder because so many of the things you killed were already dead? I’ve been over to the Other Side, princess. You owe a lot of us for what you’ve done. They sent me back to collect.”

Alana’s eyes go cold. “I know exactly what I’ve done. And I have no problem doing it again.”

Wade charges her. Alana is already moving, and she puts a flying kick into his face, sending him back into the sodden ground.

He leaps up far too quickly. She’d know, from that alone, that he’s not human anymore.